essential technology and tools for your photo projects › ... ›...

Essential Technology and Tools for Your Photo Projects

A quick help guide for par2cipants in the online course

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Wri9en by Maureen Taylor and Carol Murchie Copyright 2016 Maureen Taylor

Organizing Your Originals………………….… 4 Digitizing Your Photos…………………………. 8 Organizing Your Digital Library of Photos………………….…....…………………….11 Online Printing Services……….…….………15

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

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This chapter provides you with resources for the tools to help you preserve and organize your original photographs

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CHAPTER 1: Organizing Your Originals

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Archival Quality Albums Museums and historical libraries often use the vendors listed below. Hollinger Corporation : http://bit.ly/hollingeralbums

Includes special mounting pages and kits Gaylord Archival Supplies: http://bit.ly/gaylordalbums

University Products: http://bit.ly/universityalbums Special retail stores often have more budget-friendly options that are of fine quality that you can trust. Be sure to look for acid free and lignin free items: Blick’s : http://bit.ly/blickphotoalbums KOLO brand Michael’s : http://bit.ly/michaelsalbums Consider local art supply stores, too!

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Essential Technology and Tools

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Archival Quality Storage Boxes Hollinger Corporation: http://bit.ly/hollingerphotoboxes

Hollinger Metal Edge boxes set the industry standard. They have several varieties and sizes.

Gaylord Archival : http://bit.ly/gaylordphotoboxes

Gaylord offers good quality storage boxes similar to Hollinger

University Products : http://bit.ly/universityphotoboxes

University Products is an example where bulk buys (shared order with friends to split the costs) may be very budget-friendly.

Blick’s : http://bit.ly/blicksphotoboxes

Mail order or use their store locator to find one near you.

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Labeling Tools Labeling your images is an important preservation step. Use the right writing implements to prevent new damage to your pictures. Soft lead pencils for paper based heritage pictures and pigment ink pens for resin coated snapshots. Hollinger Corporation : http://bit.ly/hollingeridsupplies

Depending on your storage solutions, Hollinger has a number of options, including soft lead pencils

Gaylord : http://bit.ly/gaylordidsupplies

From good old graphite pencils (they supply Staples’ brand so you can go to them direct) to special markers for glass covered items

Be certain to look at the pencil’s grading system (see this page here, http://pencils.com/hb-graphite-grading-scale/, on the things to know about the softness of a pencil). Tip: Art supply stores are good sources of appropriate pencils and pens.


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USEFUL TIP! Note that if you are using any type of sleeve or envelope for encasing individual photos, to be certain to mark them BEFORE sliding each photo into its sleeve so pressure marks from wri2ng don’t end up harming the picture itself.

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Miscellaneous Supplies for Photograph Care

Some tools that you’ll find handy for the care, organization, and preservation of your original photographs are listed here: Thermohygrometer (for monitoring moisture and temperature)

Hollinger : http://bit.ly/hollingerenvironmentalaids

The range of these in price varies widely. Those under $75 should be fine.

Amazon : search for “Extech thermohygrometer” for basic temp and humidity monitors Micro Spatulas (removing photos glued or stuck to old albums) These can be purchased from Blick’s, Gaylord Archival (http://bit.ly/gaylordminispats), Amazon.com, and Hollinger

Conserva)on Help

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American Ins2tute for Conserva2on of Historic & Ar2s2c Work, Inc. (AIC) h9p://www.conserva2on-‐us.org/ Link to their how to select a conservator page

This chapter, provides guidance for digitizing your photographs. Solutions can range from having your own in-home scanning set-up to opting for web-based options.

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CHAPTER 2: Digitizing Your Photos

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Scanning Equipment I Flatbed scanners : For dedicated photo and document scanning, the two consistently highly rated brands are Epson and Canon. v  Epson Perfection™ Scanners have a wide range of

prices, from approximately $70 up to over $800 (Amazon.com)

v  Canon CanoScan ™ has a lower price range running from $60 to $500+ (Amazon.com), even for a model that accepts negative to print scanning.

If you need negatives and old color slides to be digitized, prepare to spend approximately $160-200. Try the jumbl scanner for slides and negatives. (around $100. on Amazon) All-in-Ones (AIO) : Still has flatbed option but often also has document-feed tray for multiple pages, and features copying, printing from your computer, and even faxing features. If you need an all-purpose device, these can be cost effective. v  Canon PIXMA ™ series : Canon has a quality of

scanning lens that is considered very fine and newer models have AirPrint technology for use with Macs and iPads. Typically priced less than $100.


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Scanning Terminology

Learning the language of scanning is like being tossed into an alphabet soup. There are several different picture formats: RAW, TIFF, GIF, and JPEG. These various formats can be a li9le confusing at first. Aaer all, what do those le9ers mean? In order to understand the basics of scanning, you need to become familiar with a few acronyms for terminology. • DPI-‐Dots per inch. The more dots per inch contained in an image, the be9er the resolu2on quality.

•  PPI: Pixels per inch •  RAW -‐ This format contains all the data related to an image. It must be converted to be viewed. There are many different RAW formats currently in use. Some are proprietary to specific companies.

•  TIFF -‐ Files saved in this format are uncompressed. This is a preserva2on standard at a high resolu2on, i.e. more than 600 dpi.

• GIF -‐ This format is a web standard for graphic files. JPEG -‐ Images in this format are compressed to save file space.

•  Factors to consider when choosing a format: •  Compression: Does the format compress the image? If so, then choose another format for images you are going to edit, manipulate or restore later.

•  Image Quality: Some compression methods affect image quality. This can affect edi2ng.

•  PrinBng: If you want to print an image, then you’ll want to have an uncompressed file of at least 300 dpi. This will allow you flexibility to print large or small prints. 72 dpi jpeg files for instance, are just for the web. You can’t get a good quality picture from this low resolu2on.

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Scanning Equipment II Portables and handheld scanners Handheld scanners are key to capturing photographs that are attached within a bound album. v Flip-Pal is a portable scanner that is unique among the breed because it has a flat-bed design but can scan your photos and documents on the go without being attached to a PC. It is sold for an MSRP price of $149.99 via http://flip-pal.com/ and their site also features special bundles for genealogists who benefit from some extra bells and whistles

v Your smartphone: CNET recently reviewed the best scanning apps for iPhone and Android, with Evernote Scannable coming out on top for iOs users (no Android version…yet) and CamScan (Android/iOS/Windows). If you have no way of getting any other tool, you can try these, however be aware the quality will not be as good as you might need.

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Online Scanning Services Professional scanning services can save you time. Their cost-effectiveness is possibly best realized in terms of time and quality of results. Some services also offer the option of online storage (covered in greater depth in Chapter 3) ScanDigital : You can link directly from the homepage at www.maureentaylor.com. It is known for having great versatility of its services. ScanCafe : www.scancafe.com (can store online via Cloud storage) ScanMyPhotos : www.scanmyphotos.com iMemories : www.imemories.com (can store online via Cloud storage)

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Here Are TWO Tips! 1.  Look for online

services that are clearly using flatbed scanners since the potential for damage to your photos will be greater with an automatic feed.

2.  Remember that these services will not be overnight or same-day to turnaround any job.

CHAPTER 3: Organizing Your Digital Photos

This chapter provides information on what’s available to help you organize your digital (and digitized) photographs for handy access. Included is material on digital photo-sharing, cloud storage, and external hard-drive storage.

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Photo Organizing Software - Deluxe

These software programs are powerful tools that can help you organize your collection and often have editing tools that allow you to enhance the images. These would be used by those of you who have an interest in putting in an advanced effort on your collections. PHOTODIRECTOR 7 DELUXE : http://bit.ly/photodirector7

While Adobe has reigned supreme in digital studio quality, Cyberlink’s PhotoDirector is a far less costly tool and still gives you plenty of power to organize your collection. $60

PAINTSHOP PRO (Corel) : http://www.paintshoppro.com/en/

Corel has been a key competitor of Adobe, has good quality products, but not the big price tag. $48+ (depending on features)

TIP: Free image editors can be found online for simple fixes: GIMP 2.0 (http://www.gimp.org/) and Inkscape (https://inkscape.org/en/) are open source programs that have quite a bit of power.


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FEATURESEvernote

PicasaZoner

iPhotoGeosetter

XNViewADOBE Elements

ADOBE LightroomDigikam

Exif

Available on PCY

YY

NY

YY

YPartial

YAvailable on Mac

YY

NY

NY

YY

YN

Available on LinuxN

NN

NN

YN

NY

N (but has platform

independent version)

Free Version?Y

YY

YY

YN

NY

YPaid Versions $ -‐ $$$

$ $

$$$

N/AN/A

$$ -‐ $$$$$$

N/AN/A

File Formats SupportedFree version may only

support JPG8 main photo formats and 16 RAW formats JPG, PNG, TIF,

RAW JPG, PNG, GIF, PSD,

RAWMain image formats plus RAW and EXIF

500+JPG, PNG, GIF, PSD,

RAWJPG, PNG, GIF, PSD,

RAW19 image formats

50+

Mobile AppsY

YY

YN

YY

YN

N

Link to productEvernote

PicasaZoner (free version)

iPhotoGeosetter

XNViewADOBE Elements

ADOBE LightroomDigikam

EXIF Wiki Article on the Format

Comparison Chart : Free and Paid Organization Software

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Digital Storage Solutions

Portable Hard Drives – Western Digital and Seagate are the top names in external, portable hard drives. WD offers varying sizes of portables in the MyPassport ™ product line; Seagate offers their Backup Plus Slim ™, also in different configurations. Generally you can find a very good drive with a lot of storage space for about $80+. Places to shop for these include Amazon.com, Best Buy, RadioShack (aka The Shack) and other retailers. Online Storage / Backup – Even with a physical storage drive, it is recommended that you have some kind of online backup in the case of a fire (which we hope never happens!) v  BackBlaze - http://bit.ly/backblazepersonl v  iDrive - https://www.idrive.com/

v  Carbonite - http://bit.ly/carbonitepersonal Personal plans usually have free trials and are similar in costs

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Cloud Storage

Alternatives to the backup sites on the previous page are the Cloud services that are offered through Apple, Microsoft, Android/Google, as well as Amazon Web Services. v  iCloud – comes with an Apple subscription, about 5 GB

free space to start, added space to be purchased v  OneDrive – Microsoft offers this automatically to new PC

buyers, and offers 5 GB free, purchase added space

v  Google Drive – Requires a Google account (free) and gives you 15 GB of free space to start, purchase added space

These services are less secure than the other paid services, and caution should be taken in what you place on these sites. There is an app called Boxcryptor (https://www.boxcryptor.com/en) that costs just under $40/year which can encrypt selected files on these services and increases the security of your files. Be aware that if you access them often, you can find remembering to launch Boxcryptor to open them is a tiny headache. However, discovering your photos have been compromised or your data misused can be a bigger headache!

Sometimes, you really want to have a prized photograph or series of photographs printed for sharing with family members. This final chapter is all about resources that can help you do just that.

CHAPTER 4: Online Printing Services

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Online Photo Printing Services We are talking about services that offer a little more than a simple print creation, which is certainly something you can do with your digital photos you’ve taken and gone to your local pharmacy (CVS, RiteAid) and WalMart and Target. This is to have really fine reproductions as well as gift ideas like photo calendars, books, and holiday ornaments. Snapfish : www.snapfish.com Shutterfly : www.shutterfly.com My Memories: www.mymemories.com In addition to offering prints, My Memories sells a digital scrapbooking software that you can use to organize your scanned and digital photos into new albums.


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We hope you have found this guide helpful for getting started on using tools and technology that help you save your valuable family history. If you have any suggestions for additions for this guide for a future update, please send them to [email protected]

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For More Info on Photograph Care and Organizing, Check Out Maureen’s Books!

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© Maureen Taylor | www.maureentaylor.com

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